PM,Chidambaram decided against selling 2G licences: Kanimozhi

“I am showing you (judge) the minutes of the meeting in which the Prime Minister,the then Finance Minister and the Telecom Minister decided licences for 2G spectrum was not to be sold/auctioned,” senior advocate Sushil Kumar,appearing for Kanimozhi,told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.

Seeking discharge from the case,the counsel for the 43-year-old DMK MP,said the CBI case is based on the premise that the accused caused huge loss to the state exchequer by not auctioning licences for the 2G spectrum.

“The Prime Minister,the then Finance Minister and the present Telecom Minister are ‘good enough’ as witnesses to prove there was no loss. They are on record in

Parliament that the government did not incur any loss,” Kumar said.

“The moment,the loss factor goes out,the charge of cheating also goes out,” Kumar said,adding that the basic foundation of the CBI case cannot sustain the legal process.

The defence counsel also trashed the computation of loss by the CBI and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) saying they were “just notional loss” and could not be basis for prosecution.

“The CAG report (of loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the state) was laid before the House on November 16,2010. It had not been adopted by the House. It is still in limbo as the House is yet to adopt the report,” the counsel said.

The counsel for Kanimozhi also disputed the computation of loss of Rs 30,984 crore by the CBI saying it too has no basis as the chargesheet says the government could have earned more by auctioning the licences.

“The words — could have — cannot be the basis of prosecution as the relevant paragraph in the chargesheet is (a) full myth,” the defence counsel said.

“The sale of equities by Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd (the two alleged beneficiaries of the scam) to foreign firms,Etisalat and Telenor,respectively were approved by the government. It was not the sale of the licences and hence there was no loss,” the defence counsel argued.

“Where is the sale (of the licences)? Where is the cheating?” asked the counsel for DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s daughter,arrested by the CBI on May 30 for her

alleged role in the scam.

Her arguments,opposing charges of corruption and other penal offences like cheating and hatching criminal conspiracy in the 2G scam is still on.

Kanimozhi’s arguments seeking discharge from the case virtually echoed those of former Teleceom Minister A Raja who too had sought to rope in the Prime Minister and Chidamabaram in the case,telling the court that the issue of dilution of equity by spectrum licencees was discussed with them.

Her counsel is the same as that for Raja – senior advocate Sushil Kumar.